Book your holiday early or late?
By Darren Cronian on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

The summer holidays are coming up, and travel consumers are looking out for the best deals, but is it best to wait nearer the time or book now. Travel agencies and companies will want you to book now, but I’m not sure if that’s the best idea if you want to get the most out of your hard earnt money.

Book your holiday early or late?

Consumer, Rob Daniels, emailed me today, to say that his family all wanted to go to Majorca in July, and at the end of March, he was given a figure of £800 for 2 adults and a child, he checked again at the weekend, same travel agency, same dates, same everything, and the price has shot down to £600, so he’s gone ahead and booked it with a £200 saving.

I’m not saying that this will be the case for every holiday on offer, but £200 is a big saving for a family who save hard to have their annual holiday. The disadvantage with leaving it late is you might not get into the hotel, or resort you want, and you might not find out where you are staying until you get on resort.

Why such a big difference in price depending when you book the same holiday?


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4 responses to “Book your holiday early or late?”

The Global Traveller | 22 May, 2007 at 10:00 pm

Simple supply and demand. For peak season holidays airlines, hotels and tour operators expect to sell a lot. Some count on the majority of their earnings from a short period of high demand, and charge accordingly. But, if sales are not as good as they’d like they may need to discount. No point in that resort or flight not being full in the busiest week.

Relying on this is a gamble. If you are very flexible about where you want to go and when, then you can pick up some great bargains. For instance I know people who booked trips to Fiji immediately after their latest coup when prices plummeted due to many travellers cancelling their trips.

Nicholas Lee | 23 May, 2007 at 1:52 pm

Darren,

It’s different by company, if we take the 2 biggest their rules are.

No 1, Anyone who books the named holiday after you have will pay same or more, if price drops we will refund the difference.

No 2. We have early booking offers, only available to early bookers. (They are talking about booking January or the year before). After this holidays will be a brochure price. We will reduce holidays from brochure price if we have extra availability.

Kevin Mooney | 23 May, 2007 at 5:01 pm

That seems to be the age old question. “Is it too late to book?” Online travel agencies definitely aren’t good for anything last minute (If that’s when you decide to book). Sometimes waiting is good and sometimes it isn’t. I guess that’s why I like the meta search sites like Sidestep. They offer last minute deals that can in some cases be a much better deal than booking early. But it really just boils down to a lot of luck and perseverance when searching.

Rohan | 25 May, 2007 at 6:18 pm

If you want to take the risk then wait til late, because you’ll get it cheaper.

I prefer to just book early and not check the price later as it depresses me if it goes down.

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